A SAD CASE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3716, 25 September 1906, Page 3

A SAD CASE.

Yoyng Woman Charged with Murder. Wellington, This Day. An inquest was held yesterday afternoon upon the body of a female infant which on Saturday last was found in a cask at the rear of Mr Mawsoa’s shop in Cuba street. Henry Rowland Mawson, confectioner, carrying on business at 87 Cuba street-, stated that on Saturday 22nd inst., went to the casks used for preserving eggs, to remove some bottles deposited in them, and the girl Emmeas came to him and said “ Oh, never mind ; you go and get your dinner, and I’ll clean out the barrels.” He removed the bottles, and floating in the water, he found the body of an infant, apparently drowned. The girl Marion MayEmmenshad been working for him. On last Saturday week she was not at the shop, but on Saturday 22nd, she was in the yard when witness found the body of the infant. When the girl asked him to go to his dinner he said, “ Oh, very well,” and she having put her hands into one of the barrels said, “ Oh, there’s something dead and cold here.” Witness replied, “It must be a dead cat or something.” He got a stick and raised up the body of an infant to the surface. It was weighted down with fire-bricks, which he picked off when he raised the body to the surface, The girl said something, but he could not remember what it was. Witness had not previously seen anything to indicate that Miss Emmens was in trouble. Detective Kemp stated that he saw the girl Emmens and in reply to his inquiries she said she had given birth to a child on the morning of the 15th inst. It was born dead and she placed it in the barrel. Dr Fyffe stated that the result of the post-mortem examination showed that child was born alive that the cause of death was a fracture of tht skull and compression of the brain, with laceration of its substance; that when the child was put in the barrel it was dead ; that the lime and sand found in the lung was due to the sticking in of these substances before the child died, from the ground or some other place where such substances were about. There were no signs of death by drowning. The jury after half-an-hour’s retirement, found that the child was born alive and neglected by its mother, and it met its death by violence, but how the violence was applied there was no evidence to show. The unfortunate girl will be charged with murder on October Ist. She was too unwell to be present at the inquest.